Adopt-A-School Partnership The following activities took place between the College and the Lewiston Middle School through the Adopt-A-School Program. We continue to shift our focus in the Partnership to activities that are service related. • During Youth Art Month, the Bates College Olin Arts Museum hosted a Lewiston Middle School student exhibit and opening reception. Sixty-two students exhibited. • Bates students, faculty and Bates Dining staff supported a Multicultural Night for the entire middle school to welcome new Somali students and their families. • Students from the Bates Leadership Academy ran for their third year a “Teen Lead” outdoor adventure program for 80 students crossing grades 7-8 and both middle school teams. • Bates students have conducted action research on school-related projects. • Bates students offered after-school homework help. • Through the Big Brother/Big Sister Program, 30 Bates students mentored middle school students. • The College provided a barbeque for one of the middle school academic teams. • The College provided a graduation breakfast on campus for the entire 8th grade class. • The College provided funds for the school library. America Counts The America Counts Program completed its third year as the math/science/ technology counterpart to the America Reads Program. Three students first semester worked in the after-school homework help program at Auburn Middle School; second semester two students stayed on at Auburn Middle School; one student provided after-school math help at Montello Elementary school; and one student worked at Lewiston Middle School providing after-school math help. During Short Term two students stayed on at Auburn Middle School. America Reads The Bates America Reads Program sent 19 trained students first semester, 23 second semester and 5 during Short Term into the community to assist in a variety of literacy programs. Students participated in kindergarten Story Boost and Beyond Program (a program in which students were paired with kindergarten students identified as needing pre-literacy skill enrichment); tutored English as a Second Language (at Montello and McMahon Schools); tutored in an after-school program at the Auburn Housing’s Family Development facility; tutored at the Lewiston Public Library (some students tutored ESL, one 1 participated in the Library Book Buddies program); and tutored at Farwell and Montello Schools. Holly Lasagna from the Center for Service-Learning and Pettengill Elementary School staff also worked collaboratively to develop a model literacy intervention program, which developed intensive, individualized programs for each child. Bates students administered the programs. American Cultural Studies Students in Professor Creighton’s course, American Cultural Studies Fieldwork, combined the examination of diversity in race, class and gender with service work at a local food bank, homeless shelters, transitional living facilities, family agencies and youth programs. Class speakers, readings and discussion helped students understand the context of their work. AmeriCorps Education Award Program Three Bates students participated in the AmeriCorps Education Award Program. Each of the Bates students completed 450 hours of service in the form of volunteer work, internships or other service activities. By completing the hours of service during the academic year, each student earned a voucher payable to the College for tuition or to a student loan institution for payment toward loans. The program is administered through the Center for Service-Learning. Staff from the Center helps AmeriCorps volunteers reflect on the service that they provide the community. Anthropology • During Short Term, Professor Bourque, the Maine State Archaeologist, worked with 15 students to excavate an Androscoggin River site in Topsham, Maine. The dig, which is on a site occupied between 3,500 and 1,000 years ago, is taking place in conjunction with work at the Maine State Museum. • In Professor Elizabeth Eames’s course on Gender Relations in Comparative Prospective, students tutored, provided childcare for and supported Somali immigrants as they became part of the Lewiston community. Their work enhanced their study of gender relationships in a wide range of contemporary cultures. • Students in Professor Eames’s Anthropology course, Person and Community in Contemporary Africa, worked in a variety of agencies in support of immigrants from Somalia and refugees from Togo. Tutoring and program development at local schools, work with the City of Lewiston and 2 Collaborative Refugee Project, health care research, and teaching English to adults were among services provided. • Students from Professor Eames’s Short Term course on Somali Immigration and the City of Lewiston worked with local agencies on specific issues such as after-school programming, health access, English instruction, and community outreach. Their academic work allowed them to process their experiences through a variety of perspectives. Art History Three students participated in the Museum Internship course and worked on a variety of projects including hanging an exhibition at the Bates Museum. One student focused on philanthropy. Awards • Jenny Blau ’02 was one of five undergraduates in the nation to win the Howard Swearer Student Humanitarian Award from the National Campus Compact. Jenny won in recognition of the service-learning she did with Lewiston’s Bates Street Health Clinic during her career at Bates. • Jenny also received the St. Marguerite D’Youville Community Service Award from the Sisters of Charity Health Care System for her commitment to service that improved the quality of life in the community and beyond. • Trung Huynh ’02 was one of three undergraduates in the State of Maine to win the Maine Campus Compact Heart and Soul Award for his work in initiating and running the Portland-Lewiston Tutoring Program over the past four years. The program this year involved 45 volunteers, who tutored students at the Portland Education Center at the Riverton Park Housing Project in Portland. Trung’s hope was that the Bates students would provide the same academic and language support to the international students at Riverton as Trung received there after he immigrated from Vietnam in 1989. Trung also helped organize a day this past year in which the students from Riverton visited Bates. • Alexis Rubin ’02 and Jenny Blau ’02 won honorable mentions from the Maine Campus Compact for their work in the community. 3 Biology • Professor Paula Schlax worked with Bates students to prepare a presentation and laboratory experience on stem cell issues to Poland High School students. Two of Professor Schlax’s students also ran a lab on campus for some Poland High students and three of her students led a chemistry presentation at McMahon School for a second grade class. • Five students from Professor Abrahamsen’s bacteriology course worked with a biology class at Edward Little High School on issues surrounding bioterrorism and drinking water. Students presented the materials in a lab at Edward Little and then brought the students back to Bates to use the microscopes in the bacteriology lab. The Edward Little students returned to campus again to present their posters at the Mount David Summit. Students in the class also facilitated a workshop for 5th grade teachers on using the microscope as a teaching tool. (The work was supported by a Hughes Grant.) • Three students in Professor Abrahamsen’s virology course in the fall did an informational brochure on Hepatitis C for newly diagnosed patients. They worked with the local Hepatitis C support group as well as a Centers for Disease Control fellow in Augusta at the State Public Health Lab. One student continued the work during Short Term. Two students in the course created a brochure and workshop for parents and day care workers on antibiotic resistance and common childhood illnesses. They also gave a talk at 3 day care centers. Two students who were part of the Bates EMS team designed a web site to link with the tri-county EMS web site about the most common viral illnesses that EMTs are likely to encounter in the field. • The Short Term’s Internships in Natural Science (s36) involved two service- learning projects. One student researched and designed a health bulletin for the Maine Bureau of Public Health. Another student reviewed and listed books and websites to recommend to trauma patients and their families at the Central Maine Medical Center. • Professor Joe Pelliccia’s Biology 316 students pretested 5th graders from Webster School, planned and taught a series of lab experiences to them, and evaluated their learning and retention after the labs. Chaplain For the fifth consecutive year, the Chaplain sponsored two “urban immersion” programs for students. 4 URBAN IMMERSION PROGRAMS Thirty Bates students and the College Chaplain participated in the two “urban immersion” programs in Boston, Massachusetts during the October and February recesses. Each day, they worked in a variety of community agencies that serve the poor and marginalized of the city; each evening, they held seminars on a variety of topics related to the pursuit of justice in the American urban context; the seminars were led by community leaders whose activism is rooted in their spiritual commitments. Every day ended with an evening ritual and reflection led by the students. During those two weeks, students worked at the following community agencies: • Haley House of Hospitality: A Catholic Worker soup kitchen serving homeless men; it also supports a network of community housing initiatives and cooperative economic endeavors with and for the urban poor. • Little Brothers, Friends of the Elderly: An organization that engages in outreach to isolated elders in the community, enabling them to remain in their own homes as long as possible. • Rosie’s Place: A multi-service center for homeless and poor women and their children. • The Boston Living Center: A drop-in multi-service center for adults living with HIV and AIDS. • St. Francis House: A day shelter and multi-service center for homeless and poor women and men. Through the Chaplain’s Office, 24 students worked in the Trinity Soup Kitchen during the two semesters.